Monitoring statistics when traveling

[hanuman]

I am about to travel for the holidays and of course would like to monitor my adsense account on a daily basis as i do from home.

logging in from hotels, motels, airports etc would log a bunch of different ip logins.

can it backfire on me? what would you suggest? how do you track your adsense account when on the road?

[Visit Thailand]

Hi hanuman,

Some people do check their stats when on the road. I am one of those that do not even when on long 4 or 5 week trips.

Reason I do not, is me checking the stats won't make any difference to them at all, and gives me a nice surprise when I get back home.

The only time it gets tough is when you see the Payment Approved threads and of course you want to check yours has been approved as well.

If you do check on the road then I would suggest using your own laptop, rather than a public computer where you do not know the security settings or other stuff.

[birdstuff]

I have used GoToMyPC for over a year with absolutely no problems. That way I'm actually logging into AdSense from my home computer regardless of where in the world I happen to be at the time.

[alpski]

I am always overseas, and if theres a high speed connection in the hotel and I'm there for more than a day then I simply must check my adsense stats.

I'm addicted.

It's never backfired on me, and I think the chance of it happening are pretty slim.

[Jon_King]

I'm confused why you would think there is something wrong with checking your stats from different IP's. Why would Google penalize you for checking stats during traveling? Also, whenever my DSL modem is powered off and then on again it reassigns to a new IP, and I would get dumped for this?

I'm just not getting the darkside concept to different login IP's that would cause concern at G. I don't think there is a darkside and I don't think there is any problem whatsoever.

[dvduval]

I think I am with you on this one Jon_King.
I think logging in from different IPs would be dangerous under certain circumstances, but for the most part, it is fine. These circumstances include:
1) You are cheating on adsense and you accidentally login from the same computer you clicked on ads from previously. I'll bet people have been caught this way.
2) You are logging in to Adsense on large networks with shared IPs. I think this one is minimal, because if it is a large network, the percent of total clicks to your sites would represent a much smaller percentage of total clicks from the whole network.

I think people get banned for many other reasons, but I don't this one would be a big deal, unless there were other additional contributing factors.

[Broadway]

Most of this "IP" discussion is beyond me, I only vaguely understand what it refers to. I am associated with one Adsense account that has existed since the early days of the program. Recently I have been associated with another corporation that has just these last few months established their Adsense account. My recollection was that at some point during the join-up process (and I think related to that first time they tell you you have been accepted and you can log on for the first time) that there was some text that specifically stated something related to the fact that they will take notice of the IP you are using when you log on for this first time. I'm not saying I understand the importance of this but I am absolutely under the impression that remember reading such a comment.

[europeforvisitors]

I've often logged into my account from terminals at Internet points, hotels, ships, etc. Why would Google think there's anything suspicious about that? It's a perfectly normal pattern.

[MikeNoLastName]

I can't imagine they could realistically monitor ONLY IP's for all the reasons mentioned above, along with the primary one of proxy servers! Everyone logging in through an AOL account for instance SHARES a relatively small range of IPS SIMULTANEOUSLY. If you and I are logged on AOL at the same time and access the same site, and ONLY IPs were checked, there would be NO way of telling us appart if AOL just happened to download those pages with the same IP. Likewise one person could end up accessing sequential pages with DIFFERENT IPs in the same session. Check you own logs for proof and tracert the AOL IPS. Lots of time the page graphics are accessed from a different IP than the html.

If anything I would guess they are using cookies or (unlikely) a background process to monitor a session for a period of time after accessing stats. Or possibly a combination of IP and cookies. I base this supposition on how a few of G's other products apparently work. Thus, I'd be wary of using the same PHYSICAL computer to access stats as others may be using to access your site. If this is true there could indeed be some advantage in say using your own laptop with a hotels' wireless network, as opposed to an internet cafe, as the cookie would be on your own device ONLY. If I MUST use a shared terminal and there is a possibility others could visit my site in the next 24 hours I would ALWAYS manually clear ALL cookies before leaving it and delete all temp files.

I would also suspect a LOT of ad clicking on your site with cookies turned OFF (or, if _I_ was programming for G, with a recently new/reset Adsense cookie) rings some bells at G.

[Visit Thailand]

I understand what everyone is saying above but I see little need to constantly check your stats and I see even less reason to leaving G with hundreds of diffeent IP's from different hotels in different cities in different countries.

But I would definitely only check from my own laptop as that is the only computer you can be sure does not have spyware or other malicious stats on them.

[Jon_King]

>>But I would definitely only check from my own laptop as that is the only computer you can be sure does not have spyware or other malicious stats on them.

But that's not what hanuman is getting at. The implication in this thread is that Google will for some reason ban you because of logging in on different IP's, that's absurd.

[Visit Thailand]

I agree Jon_King it is absurd, but as none of us know for sure exactly how such things are calculated by G I prefer to reduce risk anyway I can, which includes what I stated previously.

[BwanaZulia]

I log in to Google Adsense from everywhere.

Don't worry about it.

BZ

[darkmage]

There is a lot of mixed up information above. Feel free to jump in anybody if what I say is wrong:

1. Google will ban you if click on your own ads.
2. Google has various techniques for finding click fraud - none of which we know, but we can take a guess. However, it is logical that IP addresses, other computer info available (eg Browser version, OS) or cookies may play a role. Maybe it's a mix.
3. To get banned while on the road, someone will have to look like your computer according to Google (eg same IP address, computer profile or cookie), but critically - and this next point is always missed in these discussions - while having this profile they would then have to visit your site AND click on your ad, probably more than once.

BTW As a matter of security, I always flush out cookies, history and cache files after using public computers.

[1Lit]

I think Google will ban you for logging on from computers in different countries. Haven't you read their Terms & Conditions? It says you can only access your statistics from one country in a week - unless you are a resident of Finland where it is three countries a week. You are playing with fire by logging on to check your stats. on different computers in different countries.

That's why I always head back to my home country to check my Adsense stats. before taking up another step on an around-the-world tour.

[Galtego]

When I traveled last and checked stats on the road, I took note of IPs from which I checked stats (airport, hotel, coffee shop, a relative's home). I checked that list against the logs just to see if there was any significant activity on my site from those IPs for a couple of weeks after - I was prepared to deny them access to the site, but the activity was negligible, so I took no action.

[maximillianos]

I run my business from anywhere using my T-mobile Sidekick II. I can setup up to 3 POP email accounts on the device, browse the web (check my adsense account), it is a phone, a camera, games... AND best of all, I can remote SSH (secure telnet) into my server from this thing to do any urgent server work/updates. I dig this thing.... ;-)

[hanuman]

thanks for responses.

17 posters 17 answers

hey. is googleyuy still around?

[bts111]

I am going overseas on Sat. so I will soon find out.

I had a OS holiday a couple of months back and had no troubles then. I can't help looking : )

Googleguy or Adsense advisor would be rather helpful on this topic.

[Dabu The Dragon]

Although this topic at first appearance seems a little paranoid. After reading a few threads I can definitely say this much.

1. Don't check your stats from other computers.

2. Read 1 again.

I have checked my stat from a few different computers before. But I think those days are over for me. If I travel and I really need to check stats I will only use my laptop. IMHO it's not even worth the chance to me. I don't want to ever end up in the G banned me and I don't know why section.

[1Lit]

Pardon my frankness, but are the people here nuts? I have had so much respect for people posting on WW over the years, but this is totally insane. What is wrong with checking your Adsense stats. in an internet cafe as well as on your home/office PC?

I just can't believe how paranoid people are becoming.

My last post was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but don't suppose anybody got it because paranoia seems to be sitting in on the WW community this Yuletide.

[hanuman]

well, i just emailed Google and will report back with their reply.

Thanks for guessing and assuming to my question

[richmondsteve]

I agree with most of the points made in this thread regarding paranoia. Though I am not familiar with Google's fraud detection methods, I've been involved in a number of fraud detection system projects for smaller fry. I have every reason to believe Google's methods are very sophisticated with multiple levels and have evolved since AdSense inception 18 months ago. Based on that, I suspect there is almost zero risk related to checking one's AdSense reports on the road from a dynamically assigned dialup IP or PC in an Internet Cafe with an IP used by many customers. My 2 cents.

birdstuff wrote:

I have used GoToMyPC for over a year with absolutely no problems. That way I'm actually logging into AdSense from my home computer regardless of where in the world I happen to be at the time.

Even though I think it's overkill, I wanted to refer everyone to an alternative similar to what birdstuff mentioned, that would allow publishers to check their AdSense reports from the same IP every time. I do what I describe in the posts referred to below in order to access servers of mine which I firewalled to restrict access to a handful of ports to a couple of IPs.

Logging into AdSense account remotely [webmasterworld.com] (msg #2)

Hotel Connection [webmasterworld.com] (msg #16)

[hanuman]

Google Support Reply to my original comment:

Question:

I am wandering if logging in into the admin area while traveling abroad is
allowed. I will be using my own laptop and will connect from hotels. Does
checking the adsense statistics while on the road is in compliance with
Adsense TOS? Any suggestions or guidelines on the issue?

answer:

Thank you for your email. You are more than welcome to log in to your
account from any location you wish. Please feel free to reply to this
email if you have additional questions or concerns.